“I’ve not really been happy with the way I’ve been playing lately, so it was nice to have a really solid night.”

Guelph’s Brock McGinn was the lone player out of the 10 shootout skaters to score. McGinn slid a backhander under Patterson’s pads that hit the inside of the goalpost before crossing the line.

“How good was Sparks tonight?” Guelph coach Scott Walker asked rhetorically after the game. “He was the best player on the ice for either team by a million miles.”

London counterpart Jake Patterson was also pretty decent, but faced only half the shots Sparks did in a thoroughly entertaining hockey game.

Twice Guelph rallied from a goal down in the third period.

Trailing 2-1, Ben Harpur blasted one from the point that hit a London player’s stick and beat Patterson over his left shoulder. Then with Guelph trailing 3-2 late in the game, Andrey Pedan drifted a wrist shot over the right shoulder of a screened Patterson.

In the shootout, Walker tried something a little different, leaving most of his big guns on the bench and allowing some first-timers a chance. The Guelph shooters in the shootout were Tyler Bertuzzi, Robby Fabbri, Jason Dickinson, Zac Leslie and McGinn.

“Our top offensive guys aren’t necessarily our best at the shootout,” Walker said in making the decision.

“All those guys I used tonight are pretty good in practice, although tonight they didn’t do the moves they do in practice. I think their nerves got to them.”